The SAS MIST in Suriname

Guyana and Suriname, together with French Guyana, form a small section on the northern part of South America. Since 2008 ExxonMobil and some other oil companies have looked for and found substantial amounts of oil. The arrival of the oil industry in Guyana and Suriname has led to the requirement of new environmental regulations and a whole new environmental infrastructure.

The governments have taken a strong line in ensuring high environmental standards and SAS Environmental Services is working with a number of partners in the region. One of our MIST systems is already on its way to the region in order to support the waste treatment and reduction.

The latest member of the SAS MIST family will taking on both drilling slops and production waste using our SlopTreat and SludgeTreat chemistry. It was essential to provide a low energy solution capable of treating large volumes of waste with a very low energy requirement. This keeps power consumption down and minimises the need to store hazardous waste for long periods of time.

The oil industry has the potential to help these economies to grow and at the same time responsibly manage any waste by minimising the waste creation and through fast and immediate treatment of oil waste.

To find out more about the MIST System and Process download our Product Data Sheet.

Model 2 : Disposal of Stabilized Oil Sludge

The Scenario

Let us imagine that we have 50 000 tonnes of liquid oil sludge in a storage somewhere and we must move this sludge about 600 km to the nearest disposal site that is willing to accept it. However, the disposal site will only accept it if it is a solid waste not as a liquid waste. There are several ways to proceed from here, but what is becoming increasingly relevant in today's world now is how much carbon footprint our treatment process incurs.

The Treatment Method

A method that is used to turn liquid sludge into a solid waste so that it is safer for disposal and accepted in more disposal sites is by stabilizing or fixing the waste. This is usually done by adding a stabilizing agent to the waste. The stabilizing agent obviously must be taken to the waste; it must be mixed at the site.  The stabilizing agent is usually a clay or perhaps sawdust, depending on the site location. This process increases the waste volume, but it does turn into a solid. Once solid, with no free liquid visible, the waste will have increased the total volume by a factor of three or four. This quantity then must be transported by truck to the disposal site, 600 km away, where it is safely and securely stored for eternity.

The SAS MIST Process

This is one way of doing it, but obviously, we are increasing the waste volume by a factor of three or four. It seems contra intuitive to create more waste just to treat the waste. Alternatively, what we can do is add a little bit of our SAS chemistry and put it through our SAS MIST process. What happens then is rather than adding stabilizers to the waste to turn it into a solid material, we actually remove the water and the oil, leaving only dry solids. The oil is recovered, and the water will be reused. We are left only with the dry solids that we then transport to the disposal site.

 The Advantage

That is a huge saving, rather than increasing the waste volume by 300% or 400 %. we are actually reducing the volume of the waste by about 90 % here, so the carbon footprint is going to be substantially smaller. In the case of this particular example, you're looking at over 20 000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions for stabilizing the waste and transporting it or you're looking at about 1400 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions for the SAS MIST process and only transporting a much smaller fraction of the waste. The impact on the carbon footprint by actually treating at the site of storage or generation is absolutely massive.

Your Benefit

How will this help you? By decreasing treatment costs, reducing long-term exposure, making your processes more efficient and staying ahead of your competition by being part of a progressive and sustainable route to Zero Carbon.

Download the Companion Factsheet to the video to find out more.

What challenges do businesses face in the transition to zero carbon?

Transition to zero carbon will be an important business priority over the next years. Governments are activity setting a target to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which is expected to result in increasing legislation, as well as incentives, to ensure businesses play their part. 

Moving to a position of carbon neutrality is a significant undertaking, with many challenges facing businesses of all types. The desire to reduce carbon emissions is strong and continues to grow, as new generations enter the workforce and demand change. 

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Overcoming cost barriers

With increasing environmental pressures often come associated higher costs. The perceived burden of measuring, classifying and putting a programme of continuous improvement of Green House gas  (GHG) is an additional pressure on a company’s resources.

Change is always approached with apprehension and suspicion. However, with CHANGE comes OPPORTUNITY.

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At SAS ENVIRONMENTAL, we pride ourselves by providing innovative technical solutions to the treatment of wastes and recovery of valuable hydrocarbon resources. Our innovative technology is proven to recover typically 80% of oily volume and returning it to a useable form. This not only reduces residual waste volume and associated treatment and disposal costs; but provides the benefit of the value of the oil recovered.

SAS Environmental customers’ face the same challenges of reducing the discharge of oily waste by converting much of it to reusable resource.  In the months to come the requirement to measure and report material that contributes to the Carbon loading will become an increasing requirement and the incentive to Reduce, Reclaim, Recycle and Reuse will never have been more important.

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We now see that the benefits extend from not only reclaiming valuable resource but the equally valuable reduction in GHG emissions associated with conventional treatment and disposal.

This is no better illustrated by the processing of Oily waste at the INEOS site at Grangemouth.

As legislators embrace the needs for reporting of, and reduction of Carbon rich, oily wastes; increased emphasis will be placed on recovery of these ‘wastes’ and turning them into usable, commercially valuable resource.

Saving the planet, one step at a time.

If you have any waste treatment projects you're working on in oil waste then get in touch with us on any one of the many channels that are available. We would love to talk to you and see if we can help you, help the planet.

Find out more about oil sludge treatment in our Case Study by clicking below.